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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "dear sir/madam" (a standard Nigerian greeting phrase)
- "atm card department" (this phrase is often used in the ATM card payment scam)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: "Mrs.kristalina Georgieva" <centrale@server118.lan>
Reply-To: kristalinageorgieva021@webmail.hu
Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2021 19:05:30 -0700
Subject: congratulations.
Dear Sir/Madam,
All efforts to reach you on phone has proved abortive. I have sent emails too but no acknowledgement whatsoever, I am writing to notify you on the progressive report concerning your unclaimed funds following the directives of the Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19 - February 3 2021.
We have been instructed by the United Nation and United State Government to release all unclaimed funds/ATM Cards to the beneficiaries to curtail the recession because of the outbreak of the CoronaVirus " COVID-19".
All our effort to release your unclaimed funds to your bank account has proved abortive, several attempts were made by our ATM card department to authorize your card as directed but system restore was unable to complete successfully. It was a big surprise to received a letter of authorization this morning giving permission to Mrs. Amy Barthel to claimed your funds, the letter identified Mrs. Amy Barthel as your family relatives stating that you die months ago as a result of Corona Virus "Covid-19" and you authorized her to receive your compensation payment funds valued USD$1.5 Million.
Kindly but urgently confirm the authenticity of the authorization letter submitted by your family relative as you can see the below bank details she submitted for the funds transfer to avoid remitting your funds to a wrong person and please update us with your current bank account where you wish to receive the funds immediately.
Bank Name: US BANK OF AMERICA
Bank Address: 9724 BAY SIDE CT.,SPRING HILL FL 34608
Home Address: 13527 NW 147TH AVE ALACHUA FL 32615
Account Holders Name: AMY BARTHEL
Account Number: 76875994746
Routing Numbers: UD5653
Online Account User ID: VP167
Online Access Password: 71104.
Please treat this matter as extremely urgent and respond back as soon as possible
Thank you, and congratulations.
kristalina Georgieva
Managing Director (IMF).
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